Our Mission

Our Mission

Playwrights Horizons is a writer’s theater committed to the advancement of bold and visionary contemporary playwrights, through the development and production of daring new work and the education of future theatermakers. In a city rich with cultural offerings, Playwrights Horizons’ 53-year-old mission is unique among theaters of its size; the organization has distinguished itself by a steadfast commitment to centering the voice of the playwright. It’s a mission that is always timely, and one that’s necessary in the ongoing evolution of theater in this country. By expanding the U.S. theater canon with a wider range of voices, Playwrights Horizons aims to be a home for the exploration of playwriting and an anti-racist center of curiosity, dialogue, and artistic risk.

Playwrights Horizons offers a season of productions annually on their two stages. Each production is a world, U.S., or New York premiere. Additionally, writers are supported in every stage of their growth through the New Works Lab, a commissions program (supporting several of today’s most imaginative playwrights each year), and Almanac (a literary magazine about the theatrical art form). Much like Playwrights Horizons’ work, their audience is risk-taking and adventurous; and the organization is committed to strengthening their engagement and feeding their curiosity through all of its programming, onsite and online.

Ultimately, Playwrights Horizons believes that playwrights are the great storytellers of our time, offering essential contributions to civic discourse and illuminating life’s paradoxes. And they believe in the singularity of each writer’s voice, valuing the broad, eclectic spectrum and diversity of U.S. writers.